Apparatus for treating cream, etc.



APPARATUS FOR TREATING CREAM, ETC. FILED Nov. 3,1920.

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earn-r @einen JOHN T. HANNA LAWRENCE E. COON, OF HUDSON, WISCONSINySAD COON ASSIGNOR TO SAID HANNA. l

APPARATUS FOR TREATING CREAM, ETC.

Application filed November 3, 1920. Serial No. 421,455.

To lill whom zt may concern:

Be it known that we, JOHN T. HANNA and nected at the top of the member a is a pipe which formsv the intake pipe of an LAWRENCE E; CooN, citizens of the United\air pump o, the discharge pipe or conduit States, residing at Hudson, in the county of Saint Croix and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and luseful Im rovements in Apparatus for`Treating ream, lEtc.; and we do hereby declare Ithe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

rl'his invention lrelates to the art of treating cream or milk. As is well known to those skilled in this art, cream before being made into butter is preliminarily treated in what is known as the cream ripener, which consists usually of a closed vessel, having heating coils passing therethrough. The different batches of cream received at the Creamery vary greatly as to their quality and condition and ithas been found impossible to secure good results'by giving all grades of cream the same treatment. ln order to avoid a grainy or otherwise imperfect butter product, it has been customary toadd certain purifying agents to the cream, such as lime, soda, wood lime, etc., depending fupon the specific condition thereof.

It' is an object of this invention therefore to provide a simple and ellicient method and apparatus for treating creams of various qualities and conditions, so' that a satisfactory and substantial uniform product will.

be obtained.

lt is also a further object of the invention to provide such method and apparatus, whereby the useof purifying agents during the pasteurization process iselimi nated.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description' made in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views, and in which Fig. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic view of one form of apparatus used; and v Fig. 2 is a view in elevation of one of the details of such apparatus.

Referring to the drawings An ordinary commercial cream ripener .is illustrated as a, which is shown as having therein the usual heating coil.l Confor the same being shown as c. Another piped is shown as communicating with the pipe communicates with supply. Suitable valves 3 are shown for 70 `controlling the supply of steam. The tank e is shown as having an opening at one end and this opening is arranged to receive any suitable type of air purifier which may 4be either a gauze or screen purier or some form of chemical or liquid purifier. The plpe al enters the vessel a at one side and near the top thereof and is connected to a manifold or distributing pipe 5, which has the outlet pipe 6 connected thereto and in communication therewith. Pipes 6 extend along one side of the member a as shown in F ig, l and have their outlet ends disposed at separated points centrally of and near the bottom of said member.

The pump b vmay be of any desired co m. mercial type which is adapted to create a suction in` thev intake conduit thereof and this pump is shown in Fig. 1 as having the usual tight and loose pulleys by' means of 1yvlich it is driven by a suitably connected While the air heating tank e `is shown above the member a it will, of course, be understood that parts in. actual practice will probably be all arranged on one level` the arrangement of the drawings merely being selected for illustration. lit will be also understood that the apparatus shown is largely diagrammatic and merely intended to represent-the -various types of apparatus which willbe used.

In operation, the cream will be placed in the ripener a to approximately the level indicated in Fig. l and live steam will be turned into the pipe f, so that the steam I,sa

through the intake thereof which communi- Cates with the top of vessel a. A lowered pressure or suction will be created in the top of vessel a and air will be drawn through the pipes 6 and the pipe d from the air heating tank e. Fresh air will be drawn through the vessel e through the alr urier 4 which air in turn will be heated 1n said vessel and be drawn through the i e I n this manner, heated and puriib ai-r 1s drawn through the cream in the ripener a. The degree of vacuum maintained in the top of 4the ripener a, will not be sufficlent to draw any of the cream through the outlet pipe'and into the pump.

By thus treating the cream with heated and purified air, ithas been found that the quality thereof is greatly improvedand the difficulty experienced by the same forming grainy or otherwise imperfect butter is elimmated. If the cream comes to the ripener slightly sour, the same will be sweetened and improved by treating with the air for a suitably determined period. The milk or cream in the ripener can also be by this method evaporated to any desired percentage of solid matter. By suitably varying the period of treatment, milk and cream of different degrees of condition and quality can be made substantially uniform and greatly improved for the subsequent butter making process. The temperature of the air used can be varied as desired by means of the steam controlling valves 3, and is preferhave invented a simple and eficient method for improving the. quality and condition of milk or cream, and-this method has shown remarkable results' in actual practice. It will be, of course, understood that various vchanges in the form and details of the applicants apparatus and the steps of their method can be made without departing from the scope'of the invention, which generally stated consists in the matter shown and described and set forth in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

An apparatus for treating milk and cream comprising a cream ripener having therein the usual heating coil, a series of spaced parallel pipes extending from the top of said r1pener downwardly along the sides to a point centrally of the bottom thereof where they are provided with open ends, means for drawing air out of the top of said ripener, and means for supplying heated air to said series of pipes whereby the heated air 1s drawn through the milk or cream in` the ripener.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of tWo witnesses.

JOHN T. HANNA. LAWRENCE E. COON. Witnesses:

N. O. VARNUM, FAn GRIDLEY. 

